Overall Member Rating

Cruiser Beware!

In August, we took a one-week Caribbean cruise on the Legend. I am taking time to post because of the many, many bad experiences that we had. I was traveling with a party of ten (parents with adult children and spouses, all who had been saving up for almost a year to have this awesome vacation together).

Upon entering the ship, my heart sank. After ten other cruises, on 4 different cruise lines, my expectation was for a modern (the Legend was supposedly redone in 2008), comfortable, and somewhat upscale decor. Instead, I was immediately reminded of the old Vegas hotels of the 70's - gaudy, tacky, and old-fashioned.

The cabin was well-worn, but a decent size for an extended balcony room. Small, not-flat-screen televisions and hard cots with lumpy pillows were tolerable. However, then I started noticing the hair. One long grey or blond strand on the hand towel, another in the shower, and a third on the bed skirt. Debris (sand?) all over the desk. To my astonishment, More
when I dropped something and reached to pick it up, I encountered a large ball of the same hair, maybe 30 strands, and multiple pieces of broken jewelry scattered about. When I complained, they came and "sanitized" (vacuumed) and then they sent multiple people to make sure it had been corrected.

Many other disappointments followed:

1) the buffet closes down in the afternoon and you can only order a sandwich from room service or have pizza, (my daughter-in-law was standing in front of the desserts, deciding between them, when it was time for them to close. They actually pulled all of them back and didn't let her have either one because it was time to close)

2) all the fresh bakery items that we have enjoyed on other ships are apparently thawed from frozen, hard and tough every day,

3) on just one night in the dining room, my first course of fruit had a hair about an inch long on it. I quietly removed it and ate my fruit. Then my salad came and an entire dead fly was right in the middle of the wide rim of the bowl (I took a picture before asking the waiter to take it away)

4) My son and son-in-law tried the water slide only to crash into the wall at the bottom. There is no way to stop and no way to know that it is so dangerous. Both of them hurt their feet, and my son-in-law cut his toe. Blood pooled over the deck. They tried to get an emplyee to call for help, but no one could speak English. Finally someone told him to walk, with his toe still bleeding profusely, over the carpet and down the elevator to the medical center. A housecleaner came and mopped up the blood with the regular floor mop. When they arrived at the clinic, the doctor made a punching motion with his fist into his other hand and said "the slide, huh?" showing that other people have obviously hurt themselves in the same place before. The doctor didn't have any peroxide to clean the wound, but offered some salve and a band-aid. My son-in-law was left to limp for the next several days due to the bruising. 5) For debarcation, my daughter and her husband, who were in a suite, were sent a letter telling them that they would get VIP status to get off the boat and that they should meet in the dining room. However, the dining room was closed when they arrived and there were no employees who knew anything about it. Other people started arriving and congregating in the hall and were getting angry because they were not being called to get off the ship. My daughter gave the letter to an employee who took it and went to check on what the people were supposed to do, but the employee never came back and finally my son-in-law carried everything down the stairs because the elevators were full of people already getting off the ship. We don't know what happened to the other "VIP" passengers.

I could go on and on, more than I have, but the bottom line is that our family spent thousands and thousands of dollars to end up going home frustrated and angry. I haven't even mentioned that a tropical storm re-routed the ship and we didn't get to go the two places (Belize and Roatan) that had specifically caused us to choose this ship over others. Storms are not Carnival's fault. The rest of this sad story is. DON'T GO ON THE LEGEND! Less

Port and Shore Excursions

Stingray Swim

Stingray Sailing was awesome! Communication in advance was very professional. Arrangements were all as advised, with no surprises. The boat was great and the owners were the best! We loved, loved, loved swimming with the stingrays - it was the favorite part of our entire cruise. Then we went snorkeling over a reef. The entire experience was amazing!

We booked this at the last minute when a hurricane rerouted our ship. Eight of us went by van to the Falls and then to Mystic Mountain. The service was great and we were pleased with the price. We would use ExplorerJamaica again.